#Wikidata - WDQ with load balancing

The #Wikipedia app on the #mobile is to give you everything that is near you. The question is, should it be based on Wikipedia or on Wikidata data. In order for software to find geo references, "magic words" need to be employed in Wikipedia. These same magic words can be used to harvest the information for Wikidata.

So what are the benefits of using Wikidata over Wikipedia with magic words .. Most importantly, there is only one Wikidata and there are 280+ Wikipedias. Everyone seeking information about subjects nearby is as entitled to great information as anyone else.

Wikidata does not have official query functionality. But it does have WDQ. Magnus and Yuvi are finishing the implementation of load balancing for WDQ. So the question is not can we serve geo coordinates from Wikidata but can we afford to let this opportunity slip us by.
Thanks,
      GerardM

PS There has been no evaluation of WDQ yet by WMF engineers.. Why not?

#divcon - The #train from #Amsterdam

#Wikidata supports coordinates. All the train-stations in the Netherlands have been labelled with information by the Railway Taskforce. I will be going by train to Berlin Hauptbahnhof and from there by S-bahn and U-bahn I think to my destination.

When I have some spare time I will add information that will end up on this map.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Mündung der Lauchert in den Lauchertsee

I was happily surprised when I learned that Geograph has a German sister project. The British project covers some 76.3%, the new German project already 1%.

Both projects advertise their CC-by-sa credentials and, both projects inform the world that their material is available for use in Wikipedia. The British images can be found on Commons, and the German images as well.

© Copyright Hansjörg Lipp and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

All the Geograph pictures come with geo-tagging. They are another large collection that provides provenance to this type of data.. Another example that the existing absolute lack of discussion with OpenStreetMap is plain silly.
Thanks,
       GerardM

The #location of the Ruïnekerk is 52°40'10"N, 4°42'1"O

The Ruïnekerk is one on a list of monuments in Bergen (NH). This list is available on the Dutch Wikipedia and, this list was provided to the Dutch chapter by what can be considered the "copyright holder" for this data.

This is a well defined subset of clean data that exists in a Wikipedia. The problem that we face is that we do not know for many data-items who the copyright holder is. This is not only a problem in the free content world, it is no less a problem in the commercial world.

In Techcrunch there was an article proposing an open database with the kind of data we want to express in OpenStreetMap format. The funny thing is that almost all these commercial organisations have much of their data because of the cooperation of the public. That is in and of itself not enough of a reason to make such an open database freely licensed. What should be convincing is the ability of mashing data .. particularly with Wikipedia.
Thanks,
     GerardM

60.000 monuments looking for pictures and a map

The Dutch #Wikimedia chapter is planning a #photography #contest. The subject of this contest are the Dutch monumental buildings that are recognised as such. There are some 60.000 such monuments and, only one of them is the ruinekerk in Bergen and is is clear that there are many possible ways to illustrate it.

Koppelpoort Amersfoort

What people see in monumental buildings is very individual, having many such expressions provides a more complete impression. In order to get the best result for 60.000 monuments, we need to tell people where to go what and what to do.

The contest will be running for the whole month of September, there will be prizes for many categories, and we hope to work with many partners to get as many people as possible involved.

These people will want to know where to go, of what objects we have already illustrations for and, where they are. This needs a superb map that is continuously updated. At this stage OpenStreetMap is missing as a technology.. we do not have the necessary expertise yet. For those interested in helping, we have superb geo data with provenance.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Geograph

Geograph.org.uk has a cool million images about the British countryside. Some of them are dull, some of them are not so dull but what do you expect the panorama is not everywhere like this..

All these images are available under a free license and it makes sense for us to have them. These pictures have added value because all of them come with geo tagging. With the integration of the maps of OpenStreetMap, it will be great to integrate our services in there as well and show the beauty of Britain.

We can and we may take all these pictures. The reasons in favour to take them all are really strong; we do not want to make a selection..But even when we can and may take those pictures, it makes sense to reach out to the people at Geograph because together we are likely to do an even greater job.
Thanks,
GerardM